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Supreme Court rulesagainst death penaWashington (ap; - The Supreme Court held 3 to 4 todav that the death penalty, as it is '' use : in the United States, vi lates the Constitution arid.ann * !* imposed.While the decision leaves the: t pen for legislature store-' apital punishment mircamstances, one of them: 'i mions;ssued by the court ^ : the immediate result is to :■ rr. ve the death sentences f: m the 600 condemned inmates acr ss the land.All nine justices filed statements of their view s. In the ma-1 orit;. were Justices William 0. jo iglas, William J. Brennan Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and•nth some reservations, PotterStewart and Byron R. White, Dissenting were the four Nixonadministration appointees,Chief Justice Warren E. Bur-vr, and Justices Harry A. Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell Jr., and William H. Rehnquist.Reversed immediatelv bv the» «•Jecision were two death sentences for non-fatal rapes in Georgia and Texas and a death sentence for murder in Georgia.Chief Justice Burger stressed m his dissent that the court,while setting aside the death penalty, als gave state legislatures “the opportunity and indeed unavoidable responsibility* vful that it meets “any existing general need f r retribution.”Set aside bv the decisionto make a thor ugh re-eval- were:nation of the entire subject of capita] punishment.”The other di ssente r s were Justices Harry A. Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell Jr., and William H. Rehnquist.The decision evidentlv serves to maintain a moratorium on executions in the United States.There are now 600 death-rowinmates in 31 states.The central question before the court was whether capital punishment violates the EighthAmendment’s prohibition against “cruel and unusualpunishments.”Three of the justices, Douglas, Brennan and Marshall, concluded that the amendment outlaws the death penalty. Stewart generally agreed with them but said the situation might be (different if a state legislature determined that forcible rape and murder could be deterred onlvmwith the death penalty upon everyone who commits thosecrimes. White, meanwhile, saidthe death penalty is imposed so infrequently it is very doubt-1. The murder conviction of William H. Furman, a Georg; a Negro convicted of slaying William J. Micke Jr. of Savanna in 1968 while burglarizing ffie Mi ke home.2. The lape convict r. f Lu-cious Jackson Jr., a 21-. ar-# *old Negro, convicted in 1968 of the non-fatal assault on a White woman in Chatham county.3. The rape conviction of Elmer Branch, 19, for the non-fatal assault in 1967 on an elderly white woman in Vernon, Tex.There hasn’t been an execution in the United States in five years. A ruling upholding the death penalty would not necessarily lead to mass electrocutions and hangings. But it would wipe out the most consistent argument against capital punishment - that it is too cruel to lie constitutional.The three cases involve William H. Furman, convicted of murdering a Savannah, Ga., man during a household burglary; Lucious Jackson Jr., convicted of rape also in Chatham County, Ga., and ElmerBranch, convicted of rape in Wilbargei, County, Tex.Both rape victims are white. All three inmates whose appeals are before the court are black.The de at h pe n al ty isle gal in 39 states and the District of Columbia, but eight of these have no prisoners condemned to execution. Of the 600, all but two are men. The women under death sentences are Marie Dean Arrington of Florida and Marylin Dobrolenski of Pennsylvania.Of the 600, a total of 517 were convicted of murder, 79 of rape and four of armed robbery. There are 329 Macks, 257 whites and 14 of other racialand ethnic backgrounds.A year ago the court rejected, 6 to 3 challenges to death-penalty challenges to death-penal ty procedures. The ruling said that leaving to the jury’s discretion the power to decide between life and death in capital cases does not violate the Constitution. Secondly, thecourt held then, the Constitution does not require separating the penalty phase of capital trials from the body of the trial.
Newspaper Details
Pecos Enterprise
Pecos, Texas, US
Thu, Jun 29, 1972
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Diana F.
WA, USA 22 Jan 2020
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